LIFE-HISTORY. 



ixxi 



{Hammatophora huccphala), the goat-moth {Cossiis licjm- 

 perda), or the wood-leopard {Zeuzeraoisculi), all m their 

 fine shadings of grey, so effectually merge their colour 

 in the prevaihng tints of the willow or poplar barks 

 that, except to the practised eye, they are very easily 

 overlookecl. Here beauty, or what intelligence acknow- 

 ledges to be such, is produced l)y the choice of curves 

 and the disposition of spots, superadded to the develop- 

 ment of those tones which harmonise best with the 

 surroundings. This surely shows, not that such pro- 

 cesses are tentative, as has been asserted, but that an 

 admirable wealth of resource may be traced in the 

 adaptation of many means to a single purpose. Form 

 and colour undoubtedly have their economic uses ; but 

 many will think there is a real harmony in fitness, and 

 a charm in the study of variety itself. 



Claims to a sense of sestheticism have been advanced, 

 with reference to the choice of mates by the females 

 of some insects, founded on the supposition that the 

 brighter-coloured males are more acceptable to them 

 than those of sadder hues. Arguments based on our 

 own tastes and predilections are somewhat hazardous 

 when applied to insects ; especially when so little is 

 certainly known as to their faculties of smell, sight, 

 hearing, and touch. It may well be believed that in 

 the fierce rivalry of tigers, the female falls to the share 

 of the strongest male, and that any brighter stripes 

 that he may possess, come only in a secondary sense 

 into the final issue. 



Amongst the Tettigida; probably the females accept 

 any active males that may offer, provided that their 

 advances be made in due season. 



The whole subject of the uses and the acquisition 

 of colour in insects is of stirring interest, and com- 

 petent minds are engaged on it. But mere popular 

 ideas, unsupported by experiment and devoid of evi- 

 dences on a broad basis, must be discarded. We 

 question the remark lately hazarded that " only those 

 animals display beautiful colours, due to sexual 



